Meet Jonas Laukoter, writer

Jonas Laukoter describes receiving the 2024 Thomas Wolfe Scholarship as “the biggest honor of his life.”

Laukoter, a native of Dallas, plans to double-major in English and computer science. The scholarship, awarded by the College of Arts and Sciences’ English and comparative literature department, offers full four-year financial support to a first-year student interested in creative writing.

Currently, Laukoter plans to pursue video game design. He enjoys using storytelling to create a finished product that puts a smile on someone’s face.

“I feel like I’ve always been writing. It just feels like the one thing I always want to do,” Laukoter said.

Laukoter remembers, when he was younger, carrying around a little red book to record his observations about nature and his neighborhood. From elementary to high school, he always gravitated toward English and creative writing classes. As a high school senior, he founded his school’s newspaper. However, Laukoter never saw himself as a writer until after he received the scholarship.

In a creative writing class during his junior year of high school, he completed a collection of essays about his experience being gay in a Catholic elementary school and the complexities of organized religion. He described the overwhelming support from his teacher and peers on the essay collection as a pivotal moment for his writing.

“I noticed after I wrote that, people were more open to talking about the idea that maybe organized religion isn’t always helpful to some people,” he said.

Laukoter’s work explores a variety of genres, including memoir, coming-of-age and poetry. He often draws inspiration from writers such as Louise Erdrich, Richard Seiken and Franz Kafka.

According to Laukoter, a compelling story can only be created when the artist lets the art flow out of them.

“I’m not interested in stories that don’t take some sort of risk or that are morally black or white. I’m really interested in the gray area,” he said.

He strives to write what has never been written, especially stories that include characters that are members of the queer community.

“I want to keep adding to the canon, if I can,” he said. By the end of his time at Carolina, he plans to have his first book completed.

Laukoter looks forward to getting to know the Carolina writing community. So far, he has loved how open the conversation is at the University and how welcomed he has felt.

“I just love the nature of it,” he said. “I feel very at home here.”

Laukoter wrote this poem on the day he received the scholarship:

Eyelashes

Lately, I’ve woken up feeling like God

dropped His butterflies on me.

A dozen or so monarchs —

guardian angels fluttering around my room

and landing on the parts of my body

that are full of collagen.

I wake up from dreams of the tropics.

Though these visions are impermanent, I will

make them part of the fissures of my mind.

I’m lying on a sailboat, my stomach toned

but full of ripe mango. My hair has grown, turned lighter

by the saltwater and the sun. My skin is tanner

and my freckles have found themselves in new forms.

I’ve even picked up new trades by hand.

Across the bluest of waters are mountains

covered in mossy jungles.

My eyes have never seen colors so vibrant.

My bare, sand-covered feet

almost pull me

to walk across the bay, to break into a leap.

I do what my body wants. Tonight I’m dancing,

and no one will be there

to tell me to stop. It will end only when

I find a smiling boy to go home with.

Running across the water,

I reach up to my cheek, and to my finger sticks

an eyelash. A secret. A wish.

I blow it with the wind.

A hot spring opens on the ocean floor,

releasing liquid gold into the sea. It rises up

and fills the surface of the water I stand on.

Riches have never found their way to someone

so easily. I am a natural at love.